Despite being re-bound in the nineteenth century resulting in the loss of the provenance information inside the book, it is probable that this is the copy of the Proceedings of the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa owned by George III. Better known as the African Association, the group was founded in 1788, through the influence of Sir Joseph Banks, to promote and outfit expeditions to explore the interior of West Africa. Eighteenth-century explorers had traversed vast swathes of the Earth's oceans, and intrepid travellers in America and Asia were uncovering territory that was previously unknown to Europeans but the heart of Africa still remained a mystery.

The Association had supporters from across the highest echelons of society, including the Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger, and several expeditions were outfitted including two by the Scottish explorer Mungo Park. Though certainly focused on exploiting the wealth of the African continent, the avowed goal of the expeditions was to discover the exact location of Timbuktu and to chart the course of the river Niger, as well as to better understand the flora and fauna of this vast continent.